Home Recycling Center

Easy Recycling Solutions

A Home Recycling Center makes it easy to handle recyclables as they're being collected and when it comes time to move them to the curb or to the recycle center.

Recycling is here to stay and setting up a dedicated recycling center somewhere in your home, garage or shed makes the collecting, sorting and handling of your recyclables a simple process.

Unless you have a curbside recycling program where no sorting is required, the best way to handle recyclables is with an assortment of bins, boxes or bags.

Home recycling bins and options

The size of your home recycling center will depend on the size of your family, the amount of room available to you and how often you visit the recycling center (or pick-up occurs).

No matter how your program works, you'll need some sort of system for handling the recycling contents between the house and the recycle center (or curbside).

3 Elements of a Complete Home Recycling Center

• Sorting bins - Start with something like this Set of 4 - 18 Gallon Stacking Bins that holds an amazing amount of recycling in a small footprint and easily fits into the car/van/truck for a ride to the recycle center.
  
  Each bin should be dedicated to a single material such as aluminum, glass, cardboard, paper, milk jugs, tin cans, tetra packs or plastic - whatever your family uses most.
  
  Alternatively, some recycle programs allow you to collect several types of recyclables in the same container.
  
  If you have plenty of cupboard space a simplehuman, Under-Counter Recycler, Pull Out, 9 Gallons, secures easily to the inside of cupboards so that it can be convenient to the general work area, while staying out-of-sight when not needed.


• Large bin - An additional large bin, something like the Rubbermaid 32 Gallon bin holds large, infrequent items like computers, clothing, toys and small appliances that may need to be taken to a special center for recycling or tweaking.


• Composter - Finally, a receptacle for Kitchen Compost and yard waste.
  
  Compostable materials like kitchen scraps, leaves, plant clippings, even some papers contribute about 25% (source EPA) to your household waste. That's one bag out of every 4 that contains materials that can be turned into a beneficial soil ammendment rather than become a part of the sanitation problem - talk about a win-win situation.

Recycling is a much easier process if you have an organized recycling center.

Depending where you live your recycling may be picked up at the end of your walk or you may have to put it in the vehicle and take it to a center yourself. In any case you have to do something with it while it waits to go to the recycle center.

When the time comes, a system that requires as little handling as possible will be easier to use and to get the family on board.

4 Must-Haves when choosing a Home Recycling Center:

• Roomy It depends on the size of your family, how often you visit the recycling center and the types of packaging you use. Gallon sized milk jugs fill a container quickly while flat items, like paper fill a container more slowly. Ideally, the recycling center will be large enough that it holds your recycling materials for 1 or 2 weeks.


• Portable The container itself should have easy to grip handles and be portable enough to be packed into the vehicle or moved to curbside. Medium sized, durable bags like this Set of 2 Kangaroom Recycle Bags, each measuring in at an economical 11 x 11 x 18 inches, are the ticket for smaller families. Just pick them up and stow in the trunk to transport.


• Washable Containers should be easy to hose out or rinse in order to get rid of smelly residue and fly attracting contents.


• Durable Rugged containers that hold up to being transported, filled to bulging and banged around, will be an asset to your recycling routine and make the entire process simpler.

Visitors to our Home Recycling Center page may also be interested in the following pages.